Nisadas

The Daily Mirror (yes, that website that stole my crappy photo and continued to use it without any attribution some time ago) has gone ahead and published an article about the resignation of the Sri Lankan cricket team’s Bus Driver. Many thanks to Mr. Senanayake for his continued highlighting of such moments of hilarity.

Type this into Google, since you are not going to find it on their site any more:

cache:http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/10809-sl-cricket-team-bus-driver-resigns.html

EPIC FAIL.

The original article is at http://www.espncricinfo.com/page2/content/story/509832.html which ends with the quote:

This article is dedicated to the memory of Trevor Chesterfield. A lover of cricket and satire, it’s the kind of thing he would have enjoyed.

Well, so much for their breaking news.

But what is heartbreaking is that this same story in its entirety appears on Lankapuvath, which is supposedly by the “National News Agency of Sri Lanka”.

Journalism was last seen walking on a rail track, weeping into a sodden handkerchief. Incidents like this are possibly the best reason for continued repression (alleged) of media freedom in Sri Lanka.

O tempora! O mores!

In the beginning there was no spam. Or well, maybe there was, but no one wrote about it.

And then people who wanted to sell stuff decided that the best way to sell it was to let everyone know. So there began bulk mailing and literally junk mail.

With communications moving on to the internet, the junk mail developed into junk email. The general cluelessness of many email users, coupled with clever scams (e.g. “Win a free iphone, mail this to ten friends with WinAFreeIfone@gmail.com in the cc field”) led to many people receiving loads of junk email. Thankfully, filters can be put in place to stop that.

With attention turning to mobile devices, we started getting text messages from people. From New year greetings from the top, to updates on the latest Metered Three Wheeler service in town.

And now, we have the phone call spammer. Cold calling at its coldest. You get a call on your phone, which you answer since the number is not a known one. “Hello…” you start, only to find out that instead of a human being on the other end, you’ve got a little recording telling you stuff you didn’t know you were going to hear. So far its been about Star Points and Leasing, but I guess anything else is possible.

In an age of limited attention spans and crowded media outlets, is this really the way forward for companies – telecoms, advertisers and agencies? I hope not. After all, who’s going to decide how many ads per phone per day?

I’m not very impressed. My phone is for people – real people – to contact me. Not some automaton trying to sell me something. And besides, how do I know whether an incoming call is genuine or automated? I’m going to be annoyed by every new phone number that turns up on the CLI…

While reading for my postgraduate qualification I came across Yahoo’s value statement as part of the coursework. Interestingly, they also include a separate page for what they don’t value.

One of the terms I came across in all of this, is the “Monday Morning Quarterback”. As always, Google helps us find out what that means:

Monday morning quarterback

a person who, after the event, offers advice or criticism concerning decisions made by others; one who second-guesses

Source: http://www.yourdictionary.com/monday-morning-quarterback

After Saturday, wonder how many you will encounter over the next couple of weeks?